The BYM Camps Alumni Newsletter
April 14, 2026

What you'll find below:

A thousand greetings, BYM Camps Alumni! I’ve got two get-thee-to-camp pitches for alumni, information about the new LLC structure of BYM Camps, and one new co-director introduction for you....keep reading!  As always, I'm here for your questions, comments or hare-brained ideas about camp.  Please keep in touch!

 

Cheers,

 

Zora Tucker

Camping Program Manager

BYM Camps

Oh, the summertime is coming, and the trees are sweetly blooming — it is very true here in New York City.  While a late frost slowed down the cherry trees, they are now exploding like slow, silent pink fireworks, and tulips are waiting in the wings. As the days grow longer, camp starts to loom larger for BYM staff, camp directing teams, and all the campers and families headed to camps in June.  

I’m getting emails from parents about what kind of shoes campers should bring, and inquiries about if sessions are still open (for the most part–yes!) and if scholarships are still available (also yes!). Oh, the summertime is coming, and the trees are sweetly blooming…these are lyrics to the song “Wild Mountain Thyme” – a Scottish tune popularized in the US by the folk movement of the 1960s, and probably brought to our camps at about that time as well. You may have smiled or shivered when you noticed that this iconic BYM Camp song had a great moment of totally creepy glory in the film Sinners, or you might’ve seen/heard this lovely version by Jacob Collier, Laufey and dodie making the rounds of the internet (if you haven’t heard this version, I recommend you listen in the background as you read the rest of this email – it will do a lot to amplify the majesty of my prose).

But since singing “Wild Mountain Thyme” for probably the 937th time at various camps last summer, I’ve been thinking about “Wild Mountain Time” as a great potential tagline for camp.  Wasn’t it– and isn’t it–a wild mountain time up on those mountaintops and down by the riverside? Haven’t we all had wild experiences and been in wild places –physically, emotionally, spiritually – at camp?  Camp is a wild mountain time – for everyone. 

And so I am once again inviting you back to BYM Camps for a Wild Mountain Time, as an adult. 

There are two ways you can come back this spring and summer — work granting, and signing up for our All-BYM-Alumni Weekend this Memorial Day Weekend. 

Work granting is another name for a free week of getting to play games, sing songs and make new friends all in exchange for learning how to cook sweet potato biscuits, help give campers meds, or repair cabin doors at Opequon, Shiloh or Catoctin. But don’t take my word for it – here’s a snippet of what camp alumna and work granter Laurel Johnson has to say about her experience work granting at BYM Camps:

Returning reminds me that camp is a living organism, it is both timeless and evolving. Last summer, I left feeling the same way I did when I was younger– more spirited, more curious, more open. And capable of doing things I didn’t know I could– like scrambling dozens of eggs & flipping hundreds of pancakes.

You can read her whole testimonial here – it will soon be linked in our website too!  (I’m accepting other such submissions if you have your own back-to-camp-as-an-adult work grant story to share!)

If you are interested in work granting – its easy – sign up here – the weeks during which we still need help from folks like you are color-coded by camp and there are instructions on the sheet about how to sign up.  

A reminder about just some of the reasons why work granting is not just great for camp, but great for YOU: 

--Helping young people work together, play together and be together in nature feels amazing and, as Laurel said – opens you back up to the world 

--Being at camp is a REAL escape from the daily grind of adulthood – we may have been promised jetpacks as kids, but we sure got email.  Being at camp will pull you away from the online universe, reset your nervous system and you'll feel like your week was a month.

--Going to volunteer your time is an *extremely* affordable way to feel like you really got a summer vacation, while doing something almost unbelievably wholesome and contributing to, and investing in, a community you care about.

Sign up here!

 

The second invitation to come back to camp is to come with your friends and/or family to the Alumni Gathering at Catoctin on Memorial Day Weekend (May 22-24th).  We are holding it at CQC this spring, but alumni from all camps are welcome, and it will not be a Catoctin-centric affair.  (Although, to be fair to Catoctin alumns, can you spot the two CQC Directors in this image?)

Next spring we’ll hold this same gathering at at Shiloh or Opequon!  

At the alumni weekend, we’ll sing songs, play games, have fire circles, discuss the future of our camps and – for those so inclined – stay for a Monday Memorial Work Day to prep the property for the summertime.   You can camp in a tent or request cabin space, and electricity is available for those who medically need it.  It is our hope to make this an annual, rotating event at all of the camps.  The cost is pay-what-you-can, using a model similar to our Sliding Scale for our camp.   I’ll be there – I hope you will too!  Register here for the Alumni Weekend and here for the Memorial Work Day.  You can also email Linda Garrettson (lgarrettson1@gmail.com) and Susannah Brown (susannah.w.brown@gmail.com) if you want to help organize or coordinate!

The Creation of BYM Quaker Camps, LLC

At the January Business Meeting of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, our community approved the formation of “BYM Quaker Camps, LLC," and the Board of the new LLC is currently being configured by BYM. This governance change was set into motion by the 2023-2028 Strategic Plan. Over the last two years, a Camp Governance Study Group has been considering options to ensure BYM Camps can thrive for its next 100 years.

After looking at several models for potential change, the study group proposed the creation of an LLC, and the Yearly Meeting, after careful discernment, approved the formation of its Board this past January.  BYM Quaker Camps, LLC will allow BYM Camps to plan and act more nimbly and flexibly while maintaining both its unique Quaker identity and deep connection to the Yearly Meeting community. The new board of directors will hire an Executive Director this coming fall. For now, most of the way we operate camp will look and feel the same, but in the background, our leadership teams will be growing better equipped to respond to the needs of campers and staff, as well as the many business demands of running four summer camps in three states -- in a complex world!

If you have questions or interest in the BYM Camps LLC, please reach out to me, Zora Tucker (zoratucker@bym-rsf.org) or Camping Program Committee co-clerk (and Board nominee) Al Best (al.best3@gmail.com).

It is my pleasure to introduce Catoctin’s new Co-Director– Basil Bergman – aka Lisa Bergman (they/them), who goes by Basil (Lisa B backwards) in the world of camps. As a lifelong camp enthusiast and a social justice advocate, they were drawn to a job posting for Catoctin, which they say already holds a special place in their heart.  Out of a strong applicant pool, Basil’s varied and substantial experiences at summer camps, along with their passion for the JEDI (Justice, Equity and Inclusion) work at Catoctin were what led the hiring committee to offer them this position.

Basil went to their first summer camp at the age of eight, in Ohio, and found that camp to be a magical place where difference and social awkwardness were embraced. They have always loved being outdoors, and most of their favorite past-times were initially fostered at camp: gardening, camping, hiking, biking, and reading in a hammock. As a teen who grew up on a farm in rural Ohio, they eventually made it to a leadership camp in New York for teenagers where they met other young leaders from all over the globe--and this camp changed their entire perspective on the world. That camp, focused on human rights and social justice issues, inspired Basil to study abroad and they have now lived abroad in five countries and traveled to over thirty. 

With degrees in Math and Computer Science, Basil joined the Peace Corps in Lesotho and, later, Peace Corps Response in Malawi, where they worked with secondary schools to train mathematics teachers and coordinate youth development work that ranged from starting chess clubs to developing a leadership camp for young adults who created projects to help their own communities. Most recently, Basil was the camp director at Rainbow Camp in Ontario, a camp focused on supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, and completed an MS in Kinesiology and Recreation.  With over 10 years of experience working at many camps in a variety of leadership roles, Basil is very excited about the ethics and practices at Catoctin Quaker Camp.  Although they have learned a lot about marshmallow roasting and setting up a campsite in all their years at camp, what they are most passionate about is creating inclusive spaces for youths of all stripes. 

Basil has already begun working with other directors at the annual Directors’ Retreat, as well as starting the hiring and summer prep work with Dyresha, their new Co-Director.

Please give Basil a warm welcome at Catoctin this summer!